Not Ever
by The Unknown Warrior 11
Summary: There are no guarantees in life or death. In the quiet moment before their final battle, Yu and Chie address the darkest of possibilities, and discover the true nature of faith.


**Author's Note:** Here it is! The story I wanted to be somewhere around 500 words that turned into a monster, though I must say it is a monster I am quite fond of after getting to the end of it. If you've been following my drabble series **Chariot Ascendant** this is the story I mentioned in the first 'Extra' chapter. Like I said, I wanted it to be small, but the story didn't agree with me. As for why I didn't just simply make it an extra in that series, I decided that it was big enough to deserve its own entry.

This piece is set in the moments before the final battle of the True Ending, so if you haven't made it that far, I must warn you of going any further, as there will be some plot details that could spoil some things. I don't think there are, but better I be safe than sorry. Please, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Persona 4 and all of its attributes are the property of Atlus. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

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Yu glanced about the room that he and his friends had stopped in. Fighting over the past few floors of this immense, blank space had grown more intense by the battle, and he sensed more than knew that his friends had been pushed right up to their absolute limit, but would never say it. They were all uncharacteristically quiet, even Kanji had said less than normal, and he knew that they all felt the same as he did. The final battle loomed in all of their minds, the being that called itself Izanami was just ahead, and there was zero guarantee they would win, or even all of them make it back alive if they did. He looked to each of his friends.

Kanji had just dodged a massive blade in their last fight, saving his own life by a hair. Nevertheless, that same blade had still caught him in the shoulder, sending him spinning to the ground. Hard. There had been more than a little blood, nothing life-threatening, but enough to slow him down. Currently, Yukiko was kneeling at his side, her hands pressed to the wound. There was a soft light shining between her fingers. Kanji would be fine in a few moments, but Yukiko could only heal them so much before she too would run out of steam. Teddie and Naoto were sitting close by, Naoto fanning herself with her hat while Teddie tried over and over to fluff up his now dark and matted blue fur. That he wasn't raising a tremendous scene about it was indicative of just how serious his friends were. Serious and exhausted.

Yosuke was sitting on the strange cubed ground, resting against an immense pillar. Sweat ran down his face, much like Yu felt it must be doing on his own, and the omnipresent headphones that Yosuke treasured were scratched and pockmarked by countless claws and fangs. Rise was sitting beside him, and had rifled through her satchel to pull out a can of TaP soda she was now sharing with him. Yu could see the gratitude in Yosuke's eyes, but also just how tired he was. None of them could keep this up much longer.

It was then Yu noticed that Chie wasn't among the rest of his friends. He felt a slight panic well up inside him as he quickly scanned the room for her green jacket. As he caught a glimpse of her on the far side of the room, his heartbeat settled considerably. Long gone were her days of rushing ahead of them in battle, but when it came to moments like these she was always the first one to be ready to get back to the grind of battle. He crossed over to her.

She was standing and staring up into the fog that covered their way forwards. They had cleared the current floor, fought countless enemies and acquired a few trinkets and supplies to help them continue on, but their reserves were running low, so Yu had called for a break at the foot of the stairs that led to the next, final, floor. Rise and Teddie had confirmed it as the staircase had emerged from the fog.

"Everything we've done over the past year has brought us here, hasn't it..."

Even though Chie spoke so softly Yu almost missed her words, they still startled him. She hadn't given him any indication that she had heard him approach, and he was still slightly behind her. Truth be told, he was admiring the way she stood at the ready, almost anxiously awaiting his word for them to continue onwards. He found he had always enjoyed watching her, either from a distance when they were still little more than strangers at the beginning of this arduous journey or closer up after they had gotten to know each other and begun to date.

He loved watching movies with her, especially her favourite series of Kung-Fu movies, because it often meant that he had whole segments of the film - the segments where the most intense fights took place - to simply watch her face as she was drawn so deep into the choreography on the screen that she forgot he was even there. At those times she never caught on that he was just watching her, just studying the face he had grown to love so much over that impossibly long, yet unbelievably short year. She would never blush and start to hide her face from him, grinning all the while, and she would never call him dumb or stupid in that soft voice she only seemed to use when she was alone with him.

He noticed he had been lost in thought, again just admiring her in her entirety when a light punch rocked him ever so slightly sideways. He snapped back to the present, and noticed that Chie was looking at him with a hint of concern in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Chie asked. Yu nodded.

"Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking."

Chie nodded slowly, and sat down on the staircase. She patted the spot next to her.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Yu looked back to his friends, all of them still recuperating, then back to Chie. He sat.

"I've given it more than a bit of thought..." he started, before Chie interjected.

"You can't break up with me while we're fighting for our lives."

Yu paused and turned his head to look at her.

Chie was staring at him.

"...not a time for jokes, I guess?" She flushed red. Yu smiled and took her hand.

"Not really, but I appreciate it." Chie smiled and leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Only a few months ago neither of them would have been this open, but during their ski trip in the winter and the subsequent storm that had trapped them in what they thought was a long abandoned cabin, Yu and Chie had finally admitted their relationship to their friends, none of whom were the least bit surprised. The only one who had been holding out hope, Yu thought, was Rise, whom he had come to see as a little sister, much like Nanako, but who took the news in stride.

"You know I love you, Senpai," she had confided in him shortly after, while they had all been hanging out at Junes, "But I know defeat when I see it. I'm not blind, after all, I see the way you two look at each other."

She had winked at him then, and given him a fierce hug. He wasn't sure Chie had appreciated the last part, catching her watching them out of the corner of his eye, but Chie wasn't one to jump to any conclusion, and more than that, he knew she trusted both of them. Still, when they rejoined the group, Chie made sure to settle down next to him and take his hand under the table, giving it a fierce squeeze.

So now that the proverbial cat was out of the bag, Chie had been much more comfortable in her tiniest of PDAs. She would never be one to make out in public, but he admired the smaller things she did, even though they were probably still out of her comfort zone: holding his hand as they walked in the rain, giving him a bite of her steak or instant ramen, or just leaning into him, as she was doing now, when they were hanging out together.

"...lost you again, haven't I?"

Chie's voice brought him out of his reverie and back into the present. He turned to her.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said 'What were you thinking about?' but you were still daydreaming." It was Yu's turn to blush.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He turned his head back to look at his friends.

"I was just going to say that you're right. This is it. Everything that's happened since I arrived in Inaba has brought us here. All the false leads and battles we've fought, all the pain and anger, the answer to all of it is just up these stairs."

They sat in silence for a moment or two. He felt Chie move her head to look up at him.

"And?"

He swallowed as he thought about how to phrase the next part.

"And, this is likely going to be the toughest fight we've ever had. There's no guarantee we'll win." He stopped, then crossed the threshold.

"There's no guarantee we'll make it."

Silence.

"Umm... what?" He felt Chie's eyes drilling into the side of his head.

"I just mean... look at the things we've fought. The shadows, the monsters, the gods themselves. We've just barely scraped by more than once. This... this might be more than we can all handle."

It was something he knew that all of them had thought about at one point or another, but none of them had ever given it voice. And now here it was, out in the open and settling like a stone in the pit of his stomach. He had never gone into a fight devoid of fear or anxiety, but it had never weighed on him as much as it did now, not even when he fought almost singlehandedly through the Midnight Channel's mockery of Heaven to save Nanako.

He felt Chie's body pull away from him, and heard her shifting on the stair to face him full on. He couldn't bring himself to look into her eyes, so he stared straight ahead, looking at all of his dearest friends as they collected themselves.

"What are you trying to say?" he heard a note of suspicion in her voice. If she knew him as well as he knew her, and he was sure that she did, then she knew what was coming.

"If things start to go badly in there, if it looks like we're not going to make it, I want you to take everyone else and get out of here." He paused, then nodded. "I'll hold it off as long as I can, and then use everything I've got to take it down." He waited for her outburst, her angry exclamations and her calling him an idiot.

There was silence.

Then there was pain in his shoulder as she punched him, much harder than she had before, before he felt her wrap her arms around him and bury her face in his shirt. He was taken aback, expecting rage and indignation but instead was being given the strongest hug she had ever given him. Startled for a moment, he regained his composure enough to snake his arms through hers and hug her back. He noticed Rise had looked over to them when Chie had hit him, but Yosuke, sensing their need for a bit of privacy, bless him, had grabbed her and pulled her away.

He felt Chie shaking as she finally spoke. She mumbled something into his shirt, too low for him to hear. He shifted awkwardly in place.

"Huh?" he asked, feeling quite lame.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." she repeated.

There it was, he thought. Late, but there.

"What if it doesn't work, your kamikaze plan? Then what? Even if you cripple it, it'll be back eventually. And it wouldn't be worth..." her voice cracked, almost imperceptibly. She swallowed and started again.

"It wouldn't be worth it. Not even to save the world."

Yu didn't know if he had loved anyone more than he did her at that moment. They held each other until he felt Chie had composed herself enough to pull her face away. She might have been more comfortable with the PDA now, but she'd be damned if she would full on cry in front of everyone. She pulled away, sniffled once, wiped her eye, and then punched him in the shoulder again, not as hard as before, but still not lightly.

"Stupid..." she said, soft.

Yu smiled and squeezed her hand again.

"We're gonna win." she stated. "We're gonna kick some butt, and you're not allowed to die. Not now, not after." She stood up and gazed fiercely down at him, the slightest smile showing on her face.

"Not ever."

Yu looked up at her, feeling a small smile growing on his face as well.

"So now I need your permission to die, huh?"

Chie's smile broke out, full and radiant on her face.

"That's right!"

She paused for a moment, a mysterious smirk making her eyes shine, and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"When the job's done, this bitch is dead and we've lived long, awesome lives together..." She stopped to kiss him, a kiss long and fierce and full of the passion that had made him love her in the first place. When she pulled away she looked into his eyes.

"...then you will have my permission to die."

They both managed to keep a straight face for all of two seconds, before bursting out in a fit of laughter.

The laughter drew the attention of their friends, and Rise's curiosity could be contained no longer. She rushed over, bringing the rest of their friends with her. She stopped in front of them, both of them nearly on the floor from laughter, and looked confused.

"Senpai? Chie-senpai? What's so funny?"

They both managed to calm down enough for Yu to turn to Chie again.

"You can't mix movie quotes like that."

Chie smiled broadly at him.

"I can do whatever I want."

They helped each other to their feet, still chuckling. The rest of the group shared a confused look at them.

"I think they've lost it. The stress has finally gotten to them." Yosuke sighed.

Yukiko had started to giggle herself, the laughter that Yu and Chie shared proving to be contagious.

Kanji scratched the back of his head, casting a wary glance up the stairs.

"Well, I can't say I blame them. I mean, come on, we're gonna fight a god? If I hadn't seen all the things we've done so far, I'd say we were right the hell out of our minds."

"That's the spirit Kanji!" Teddie exclaimed, missing his point."I'm so ready for this that I'll take her down with my _bear_ hands!"

"The odds do seem to be against us in this instance," Naoto commented, "But we've come this far, and I don't think any of us are willing to stop now."

Having composed himself, Yu looked around at this group of his closest friends. He saw the strength that they had, and the desire that they all shared to put an end to the madness. They had all of them seen the best and worst that each had to offer, and had come back for more. Yu wasn't sure that he would ever feel as close to anyone else as he did to them here and now. He trusted them to the ends of the earth, even if it were only moments away, and he knew that they felt the same. They would win this fight, or would fight until they had absolutely nothing left to give to save their world and their home. Yu's mind flashed to all of the things they'd done already, all of the fun they'd had, and every face he had become friends with over the course of his year in Inaba. Even without them knowing the truth of what was going on, he could feel the faith that they had in him. As he gave one last look to the Investigative Team that was his friends and his love, he could sense, more than see, the shapes of their Persona standing behind them all, shimmering in his minds' eye like desert mirages. He knew that they had as much faith in his friends as he did. That faith was all he needed.

"Let's finish this."

There was a triumphant chorus of agreement. And as he turned and headed up the stairs, his strength renewed and his conviction unshakeable, he knew in his heart that there would be no Death in his cards, not today. Hand in hand, Yu and Chie led their friends up the stairs and towards their destiny.

Behind them, the fog rolled in silently, filling the gap they had made, making it as if they'd never been there at all.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And there we have it, another happy accident. It happens more often than it probably should, but I always seem to really enjoy the outcome, and I know I enjoy the process, so it's worth it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you thought by reviewing!

But even if you don't, thanks so much for reading. I always appreciate it.

Until next ...


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